Phillies lose as Thome sits

With a shot to beat Arizona in the 9th, the slugger is "unavailable.'

A shroud of mystery settled over the ending of the Phillies' 6-4 loss to Arizona Saturday night.

Phillies manager Larry Bowa sent a parade of pinch hitters to the plate against erratic Diamondbacks closer Matt Mantei, who has already surrendered four ninth inning home runs this season.

None of them was reigning National League home run champion Jim Thome.

Why?

"Not available," Bowa said calmly.

When pressed, Bowa answered again, "He just wasn't available."

Thome was shown swinging a bat right in front of Bowa in the dugout during Placido Polanco's game-ending at-bat. Was he injured? Had he taken a cortisone shot in his damaged left thumb?

What's his status for today?

"Yes, he will be available [today] and in the starting lineup," Bowa said. "Just leave it at that."

When a reporter challenged Bowa that explanation answer didn't clear much up, Bowa said, "It answers it for me."

Strange days indeed. Thome, who had homered in five of his last eight games and was hitting a lusty .364 overall with seven dingers in the last two weeks, was not available for comment, but a source indicated Thome had indeed taken a cortisone shot in the thumb.

Bowa knew full well why his team dropped another tough one.

Starter Vicente Padilla (0-4) lost his concentration while protecting a 3-0 lead and the offense struck out a dozen times to strand a lot of key base runners.

Padilla was protecting a 3-0 lead against an Arizona team that been shut out by Randy Wolf and Rheal Cormier on Friday night when he suffered a sixth-inning meltdown.

Steve Finley tripled off the top of the center-field wall and scored on Danny Bautista's sacrifice fly.

Chad Tracy walked and Robby Hammock doubled. Pinch hitter Carlos Baerga, owner of an .083 average at the time, capped a classic, 11-pitch at-bat that saw him foul off four nasty 3-2 fastballs before pouncing on an inside curve for a three-run homer to deep right.

"I threw the right pitch," said Padilla, who feared that Baerga had locked on to his fastball. "He guessed right with me."

Padilla was shocked by the quick change in his fortunes.

"It all evaporated in a few seconds," said Padilla. "We had a chance to win. To let it slip by is difficult."

Baerga's homer, the first allowed by Padilla all season, stunned the largest crowd in Citizens Bank Park history (44,048).

It also helped the great Randy Johnson continue his career mastery of the Phillies.

Johnson (3-2) struck out nine and allowed one earned run in five innings to move to 8-1, 2.24 ERA lifetime against the Phillies (7-0 since he joined Arizona in 1999).

Johnson upped his lifetime record to 233-116 and his career strikeout total to 3,922, fourth most all-time. He figures to pass Steve Carlton (4,136) some time this season for most ever by a lefty.

The Phillies didn't exactly bludgeon Johnson but they made just enough contact to get the job done.

Jimmy Rollins reached safely when Cintron booted his grounder to open the third and Padilla sacrificed.

Doug Glanville beat out an infield single and the game's first run scored when Cintron made a wild throw to first base.

Glanville advanced to third on Placido Polanco's second double of the game and scored on Bobby Abreu's grounder to second base.

The Phillies picked up a gift run in the fourth inning.

Mike Lieberthal walked and scored when Rollins' towering, two-out fly to left center fell harmlessly between Luis Gonzalez and Finley.

A Polanco single, Abreu double and Pat Burrell sacrifice fly against reliever Jose Valverde cut the lead to 6-4 in the eighth.

Jason Michaels (single), Tomas Perez (pop out) and Ricky Ledee (pop single on what should have been the final out) stirred things up in the ninth only to have Polanco fly out to right while Thome watched.